Who's Eating Your Pie? by Erik Weir

Author:Erik Weir
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Forefront Books
Published: 2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

Step 2: Identify Your Biggest Problem and Solutions

Once I’m alone in my dedicated time to work on my goals, I always start by asking myself, What is the biggest problem I need to solve? This could be anything. Sometimes my biggest problem is a challenge I’m having with a business deal. Sometimes it’s a relationship issue. Sometimes it’s an exam or a paper I have due for my master’s degree. Sometimes it’s securing funds for a piece of property I want to buy. Sometimes it’s a fitness challenge. Whatever it is, I write it at the top of a piece of paper like this: The biggest problem or challenge I’m facing right now is (fill in the blank).

Now, why would I start this time every night by focusing on my biggest problem? Wouldn’t that be demotivating? Well, yeah, it probably would be… if I stopped there. But here’s the deal: most days, I’m already thinking about my biggest problem anyway. You probably are too. We can’t help it. When we’re worried about something, it tends to consume most of our mental capacity. Trying not to think about our biggest problem at any given minute is about as effective as trying not to think about pink elephants. Once it’s out there, your brain is off to the races. Since you’re probably already thinking about your biggest problem anyway, why don’t we make those thoughts more productive?

Once I have my biggest problem articulated and written at the top of the page, I challenge myself to come up with twenty potential solutions for that problem. That’s a lot of solutions. Honestly, I often can’t come up with that many, but I always use twenty as my target to really stretch myself. Besides, you’d be surprised how often number eighteen turns out to be the right solution! Trying to come up with this many solutions forces me out of a problem mindset and into a solution mindset.

There’s no time or energy left for wallowing and whining because I’m actively working on solving the problem. And when I look at my sheet of paper, what do I see? I see only one problem but twenty different ways to solve it. My solution-to-problem ratio is 20:1! That isn’t depressing; it’s life giving! It’s a constant reminder that there is never a problem without at least a handful of solutions. In more than thirty years, I’ve never been unable to write down at least five potential solutions to any problem. Think about how different you will feel with five potential solutions.

You can also use part of this time to research other people who have faced and solved a similar problem, whether that’s through online research, scanning through books, or talking to mentors. In my experience, there’s rarely a problem I’m facing that someone else (probably someone I know) hasn’t already solved. If so, I want to know how they did it. Of course, I may not copy their solution, but it can at least give me a starting place for charting my own course through the issue.

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